<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
On 09/07/2015 23:43, R Kent James wrote:<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:559EF914.4070704@caspia.com" type="cite">
<meta content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
Reading the financials (though I wish they had GAAP-style
statements), I see no taxes listed. The US IRS is making it
difficult to register open-source projects as non-profit entities
with respect to US income tax. Were LibreOffice a US C
Corporation, they had $600,000 of income, $200,000 in expenses,
which is a "profit" of $400,000. US corporate income tax on that
would be $134,000. Taxation of excess donations is the big issue
in wanting non-profit status, and may drive us to Europe for
registration.<br>
</blockquote>
That is disappointing to hear. I always thought that US authorities
were much friendlier to non-profit-oriented organisations than the
equivalent in the UK. I have no idea about other European countries
or Switzerland though.<br>
<br>
<blockquote cite="mid:559EF914.4070704@caspia.com" type="cite">
Their $600,000 in donations with 80,000,000 users, scaling to
Thunderbird's 20,000,000 users, gives us an expectation of
$150,000 per year in donations. I've been saying lately that
Thunderbird could reasonably expect $100,000 to $500,000 per year
in donations, so this is in line with those numbers. Yet I think
it would be difficult to accomplish all that we would like with
$150,000 per year, which is why I keep dreaming of funding models
that can improve on those numbers.<br>
</blockquote>
I'd have thought that at least 10 times $150K pa would be a more
realistic starting point to ensure ongoing development of a product
as sophisticated as Thunderbird. It also seems to me that, in order
to stay relevant, TB and its surrounding ecosystem will need to
become even more sophisticated.<br>
<br>
It seems to me that donations alone can't provide adequate funding
(but obviously they should not be ignored). Sponsorship (in return
for something of value to the sponsor, perhaps more than just
advertising or feeds/clicks/leads) and actual, direct, development
and sale of addition value-add features/services might be the only
economically sustainable way forward. But it would be a different
project.<br>
<br>
As an aside, I note that K-9 Mail on Android is facing what seems to
me to be a similar situation to Thunderbird: A very solid base but
lacking in contemporary feature set (especially in terms of lack of
Exchange ActiveSync[1] support). There might be synergies between
Thunderbird and K-9 that could be exploited and possibly even
TB<->K-9 sync opportunities that could be monetised in some
way. No Thunderbird version for mobile is definitely a drawback.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Footnote:-<br>
1: I do not wish to patronise anyone by saying this but I should
point out that Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) doesn't necessarily have
anything to do with Exchange Server. EAS has become a near-de facto
method of syncing mail, calendars, contacts, etc. for mobile
devices. It could even be applied to Thunderbird desktop with
benefits for Thunderbird.<br>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Mark Rousell
PGP public key: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.signal100.com/markr/pgp">http://www.signal100.com/markr/pgp</a>
Key ID: C9C5C162
</pre>
</body>
</html>